How embarrassing. That right under Russel Norman’s nose the partner of his executive assistant was organising a campaign to put stickers on National billboards up and down the country.

Norman has said he was disappointed that his EA did not tell him, though she had known for a couple of months, and that is bad enough.

But for a party that has painted itself as whiter than white it is completely at odds with its image as the clean party in the campaign; a party that does politics but does not play politics and steers away from dirty tricks.

OK, the ring leader Jolyon White was a Green member, but not an activist, and was working through his networks, not Green party ones, according to Norman.

But it is a dollar to a muesli bar that other Green members will have been involved.

Denis Welch continued the lie that I some how started the “Jim Anderton caused the earthquake” story, these pinko whingers in the media like to think they are above any come back when they trot out their musings unanswered on Red Radio. The Whale bites back.

Chief Executive
Radio New Zealand
PO Box 123
Wellington 6140.

Dear Mr Cavanagh,

I wish to make a complaint under Standard 5 and Standard 6

On his show on Friday 21 September 2010 Denis Welch discusses me and name suppression then segues into a discussion about Jim Anderton.

He says “This time the dirty trick was played on Jim Anderton, and many people in the media swallowed what appeared to be on Youtube a video showing that Anderton made some crack about that it would take an earthquake for Bob Parker to beat me in the Chch mayoral election, he said this appeared to come from an interview just before the actual earthquake, so no one was saying that he was using the earthquake quite callously in that sense, just that there was a rather bitter irony about the fact he had given this interview just before. Well, in fact, it turns out…not so…”

He then goes on to list a group of commentators which he says were “taken in by it” and had now apologised “quite rightly”.

This suggests that the video on Youtube and the editor of the video was the source of the story. He then discusses “selective editing” and “victim of a right wing blogger” in a seperate case leaving the listener in no doubt that this is the same with the Anderton case.

They then talk about fact checking suggesting that the internet is wild west. He finishes the segment with;

“That really was a dirty trick played on Anderton and I’m very pleased to see that the people who were taken in by it did apologise and make it quite clear that they got the wrong end of the stick or indeed the trick”

In fact it is now Denis Welch that is playing “dirty tricks” by suggesting that the video and the editor of the video was the source of the story and that it was somehow a dirty trick that should be apologised for.

Radio New Zealand’s own Media Watch show acknowledges the correct timeline of events and the source of the story as Felix Marwick from the Radio Network. then NZ Herald, then other media including blogs, Twitter and such, all long before the video appeared.

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It is clear that Denis Welch’s show breached Standard 5 and Standard 6 in terms of fairness and in terms of accuracy.

Denis Welch has actually played his own “dirty trick” with this review of the viral video about Jim Anderton.

It would appropriate for Denis Welch to correct his show, or post a correction online apologizing for giving the impression that the Youtube video and the author of the video was the original source, and that it wasn’t a “dirty trick” but in fact an attempt at satire well after the mainstream media and online media ran with the story propagated by Felix Marwick.